Harvard Flunks this College Ranking System
Washington Post | Valerie Strauss
“Harvard is a fourth-tier institution. In fact, it ranks 847th out of 1,320 bachelor’s degree-granting institutions across the United States” according to Third Way, a think tank which defines “the value of a college based on the proportion of lower-income students it enrolls and the economic benefit it provides them.”
“Instead of rewarding schools based on the size of their endowments, historical prestige and the test scores of students who enroll, news outlets need to prioritize institutions that provide opportunity and leave most students better off than where they started,” writes Strauss. “Schools like Harvard may not like this. But if the goal of higher education is to actually lift students up throughout the socioeconomic ladder, Harvard is simply a fourth-tier institution.”